


strangers always have a common denominator

by mollivanders



Category: Jericho (US 2006), Lost
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-17
Updated: 2009-12-17
Packaged: 2017-10-30 11:13:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/331150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollivanders/pseuds/mollivanders
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The woman turns in the snow, and it’s not Heather, though she’s about her height. Her long brown hair is tucked into her jacket but strands are escaping in the wind and flying around her face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	strangers always have a common denominator

**Author's Note:**

> **Title: strangers always have a common denominator**  
>  Fandoms: Jericho/Lost  
> Characters: Kate Austen; Jake Green, Stanley Richmond, Emily Sullivan, minor  
> Rating: G  
> Wordcount: 1,760  
> Spoilers: Set in Season 1 of Jericho after “Black Jack”  
> Disclaimer: LOST and Jericho belong to their respective creators.  
> Summary: Kate's new in town and making trouble, not as usual.  
> Disclaimer: LOST belongs to _ABC_ and Jericho belongs to _CBS_ , I own nothing.

They'd left Heather with the New Bern guys about an hour back and Jake’s already having second thoughts. Johnston’s quiet next to him and Dale’s been asleep in the backseat for miles. 

“I don’t like this,” Jake grumbles into the silence but as Johnston raises his head to lecture him on female independence and necessity, Jake spots a brunette trekking through light snow falling around them. He revs the engine and pulls up next to her as Johnston rolls the window down. 

“Heather?!” he calls, weirded out by the strangeness of her figure.

The woman turns in the snow, and it’s not Heather, though she’s about her height. Her long brown hair is tucked into her jacket but strands are escaping in the wind and flying around her face. 

“Need a ride?” Jake offers, figuring it’d be rude not to at this point. The defenses lining her face drop and she grins an easy grin as she swings her backpack off and yanks the car door open.

“I’m Kate,” she offers and Jake turns to look at her a little. “Where you headed?”

Kate shrugs and snaps her seat belt on a little (he notices she reaches for the wrong side first) before replying. “Wherever. Trying to get back east but I’m not in any rush.”

“Why the hell would you want to go there?” he asks before he remembers: he knows better than to ask too many questions. He’s getting lax living out in Jericho.

But she answers anyway, a little too casually. “Family, but travelling is good too.”

“You do know that a bunch of bombs went off, don’t you?” he asks, surprised, eyeing her in the rearview mirror. 

“Doesn’t matter,” she replies and he gets the impression she’s used to thinking big events don’t in general. 

“Where are you headed?” she asks and he focuses on the road again as he answers. “Just Jericho.”

 

Gail lets Kate take the spare room with April who welcomes the occasional company as their schedules don’t exactly conflict. A couple days after bringing her home, Jake goes downstairs and finds her trying to cook breakfast, with mixed results. “Morning,” he announces, startling her as she picks up the frying pan and oil flies onto her arm with a hiss. 

“Morning,” she gasps out, rubbing the oil off her arm and getting back to work. “Your mom left pretty early but I figured whoever’s here might want something to eat.”

“And you’ve never cooked before?” he asks before biting into one of the last apples of the season. He leans against the counter, watching her work. “You’ve got plans today?” 

He doesn’t bring up the fact that she hasn’t moved on yet, and they’re the only people she knows in Jericho.

“I’m actually going hunting with Emily today,” she says with a secret looking grin as she scoops the bacon out and fills her own plate up. “She says the game’s been scarce lately and my dad taught me how, so…” she shrugs again (she does that a lot).

 

Jake’s out with Stanley later that day when he hears sirens and sees Jimmy speeding after a familiar looking car.

Kate’s inside.

“Shit,” he curses as Stanley turns and asks, “Hey, isn’t that your new girlfriend?”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Jake bothers to correct as he jumps into Stanley’s truck. 

“Of course,” Stanley sighs, jumping in the passenger seat of his vehicle. “Race after her, figure it out, save her, but she’s not your girlfriend.”

“Are you done?” Jake asks, more sharply than he’d intended – but the last thing his family needs right now is another criminal.

By the time they get back into town Jimmy’s walking Kate into the town cell and Jake and Stanley are stuck at reception. “That girl that just came in,” Jake asks Bill, “what happened?”

“That one? Caught her stealing parts from Dale’s store and heading toward old Jonah’s place. We’re holding her for questioning right now but she’s probably on her way anyway,” he confirms, filling out the paperwork.

“Can I talk to her?” Jake asks before he thinks and when Bill just stares at him he explains quickly, “My mom will want to know exactly what’s happened.”

“Five minutes,” Bill warns him but he lets Jake head back to the lone cell where he had spent so much time himself. When he gets there, Kate’s scratching his words deeper into the wood with her nail. 

“Kate?” he says, leaning forward against the bars. “What the hell were you thinking?”

She shrugs, hair hanging in front of her so all her can see is a glimpse of her freckles and dirty green jacket. “I made a promise,” she answers, but doesn’t look up. 

“I thought you didn’t know anyone in Jericho,” he says, distrust bubbling up inside him. 

“I don’t!” Kate defends and looks up at him. “It was for your friend, Emily,” she continues, “Her father’s back in town and wants to see her.”

Jake’s fingers tighten on the bars as his voice snaps. “Jonah Prowse? How do you know him?”

“I’m not who you think I am,” she confesses and he almost feels sorry for her. “And he knew, somehow, and he threatened to take it all away if I didn’t get Emily to see him.”

“Well you’ve lost it all anyway,” he tells her. “Either you’ll be held here for a while or you’ll be banished, just like Jonah. Unless you can think of a third option,” he adds, not really expecting a response.

“What if he could help protect the town?” Kate suggests. “I’ve seen roving bands all over the country and if they’re not here yet, they will be soon.”

“We’ve taken care of ourselves before, we’ll do it again,” Jake rebuts and is about to leave her to fend for herself (again) when her fingers close around his and the bars. 

“Jake, please,” she asks this time, “I don’t beg. I can help you here. Set up a supply chain of weapons to get you through the winter at least.”

“How could we trust you?” he asks, impatient.

“You can come with,” she suggests and for a moment he thinks it’s a good idea.

“I’ll talk to Stanley,” he offers before leaving. It’s really up to Emily, but he’s not telling _her_ that.

 

“You shouldn’t have told her,” Jake gripes as he and Stanley walk to where Kate and Emily wait for them. 

“They look oddly… similar, don’t you think?” Stanley asks instead and grins at Jake as he jumps in the passenger seat. “You ladies getting in?” he calls out the window as they slide in the backseat, rolling their eyes at each other. 

“Typical men,” Emily jokes with Kate as they pull out on Main Street.

“Alright, where to?” Jake interrupts and Kate directs him out of town, far out of town, to a hideaway in the hills he didn’t know about. Jonah’s always got something up his sleeve.

 

It’s cold up in the hills and Jake shivers, wishing he’d brought a warmer jacket as the women lead the way to a small hole in the side of the cliff face. 

“Did you know about this?” he asks Emily and he tilts her head. “Knew about it but nobody really knows where Jonah’s going to be. Only where he tells you he is, and that’s good for as long as you can hold your breath.”

“That’s my daughter for you,” Jonah says, stepping out of the shadows. “She did learn manners at one point, I understand, though the rest of you are still required to use them around here.”

Emily says nothing, just stares her father down as she circles her way into the cavern with her three friends.

“Kate tells me you want to be armed to the teeth,” Jonah continues and Jake interjects: “We want a supply chain, access to guns and ammo to last us longer than one shipment. What’re you trading in today, Jonah?”

“You bring the parts that newbie tried to steal?” Jonah drawls, and Kate bristles but pops the car trunk and yanks out two heavy shopping bags filled with items of a questionable origin. 

“Jake’s cleared them,” she says, dropping the bags at Jonah’s feet as his crew spills the contents and shuffles through them, verifying.

“This looks good for now,” Jonah concedes, “but we’ll be back for more. No such thing as a free lunch, Jake. You should remember that, as should Emily.” 

Walking up to her, he presses a packet into her hands. “I dug that out of the police records nearly five years ago, Em, and you should read them if you really care about what happened with your brother.”

She pulls away but hangs on to the packet, and her eyes drift toward Jake, then Stanley. “We done here?” she asks brusquely before walking over to the car, conversation over.

 

“Stop the car here,” Kate suddenly bursts, shaking Jake’s shoulder so hard he stops the car out of surprise. 

“What is it?” he asks before he sees her grabbing her backpack from the floor and opening her door before he can lock it. 

“Kate, what the hell?” he asks, jumping out of the car and feeling Stanley’s eyes on him.

“I should get moving,” she says, not meeting his eyes anymore. “Stayed here long enough, and soon enough you’ll know why.”

She adjusts the backpack on her shoulders and ties her hair back, and for the first time Jake notices the curve of her neck; understands why Stanley thinks something’s going on. “Tell you mom thanks from me?” she asks as she finishes tying it, “and sorry for all the trouble?”

“You weren’t all trouble,” he admits. “No more than me, at any rate.” She laughs; even still, there’s goodbye written all over her, though it’s really been there all along.

“See you, Jake,” she replies and heads off the side road. Back east.

As he gets back in the car, Stanley looks up and asks, “Man, why are girls always leaving you on the side of the road?”

“Must be my charm and good looks,” Jake answers confidently and revs the engine.

 

Three weeks later, a man claiming to be a U.S. Marshall shows up in town asking about a woman named Kate. When he finds his way to the Green’s house though, he only finds a note in her room that says _still following the leader?_ under a scratchy drawing of a plane.

Jake knows, bombs or no bombs, she’ll keep running, leading them all.

_Finis_


End file.
